Hiding things

Henry has started to hide things.  He doesn't do it on purpose, but he innocently takes important things and puts them in weird places.  One day I couldn't find his shoes.  I looked for 45 minutes, no exaggeration.  It was important as we were meeting people at the park and a kid needs shoes.  I ended up having to squeeze him into his baby Robeez, only to find the shoes immediately after our return at the bottom of the basement stairs.  He had thrown them down there the night before I guess.  The next day I had had a long day and dramatically poured myself a glass of wine and decided to go and watch the Bachelorette.  No remote.  I got into the family room and proceeded to look under every single one of the couch cushions on our massive couch, under the couch, in the bookshelf, in the tupperware drawer, spice drawer, etc.  Nope.  I finally discovered I could change the mode on the television using the cable box.  The next day I happened to glance into my rubber boot which was way over in the mud room and the remote was in there.  Since then the boots have become a preferred  place to hide things, so I always look there.  Also I've noticed him throwing a ton of things down the stairs now, so most things aren't missing for long anymore...

Horse camp

Dusty and messy after a day at camp:

Paige and Bailey:

Paige's only complaint at camp was that she didn't get to ride the horses as much as she would like.  They played super fun camp games and got dirty...and ate massive chocolate bars which I outlawed form her diet on day 3.  I had no idea the money i sent was buying full sized chocolate bars?? Talk about unhealthy!
Paige is going to try riding lessons in the fall.  She is such a huge animal lover.  It'll be good I think.

Paige's 7th birthday!

Seven years!? Grade 2??? What?!

Paige's birthday was on a horse back riding camp day, so we had a pancake breakfast early in the morning, followed by a few presents.  Of course we had more pizza for dinner. The day wasn't very eventful in terms of birthday activities...but we had Great Wolf Lodge to look forward to on the weekend...

A few days before Paige's actually birthday, the family came over to celebrate Paige, James, and my birthdays. We had pizza and cake of course. 

Happy Birthday my happy, smart, fun girl!

Birthday/Anniversary trip to Taboo Resort

Mike went to Taboo Resort for a work function a while ago and mentioned it would be great for us to go there, so we quickly decided to go there for an anniversary celebration.  Grandma and Grandpa were staying at the cottage which is just a bit north of the resort, so they offered to come pick up the girls and keep them for 2 nights.  Of course they would have taken Henry too, it's just not possible yet, so he came along for the weekend, which was pretty cute. The day we left happened to be my birthday as well so it was a bit of a birthday celebration in a way.  I had 2 spa treatments while we were there, and Mike went to the gym a couple of times.  We didn't do too much, but that was the plan.  We had to eat room service though as the restaurant was fancy and Henry was teething.  Breakfast was a buffet which was doable as we could eat quickly. 

The view from our room:

 Henry's "silly face":

The fake coyote decoy that i thought was real from a distance.  (still haunted by my coyote encounter):

 Henry fussy at the restaurant for lunch

 Another meltdown:

At the spa on my birthday

 Just the three of us:

 Ok...that one's a cheat.. Mike wasn't there but Henry was sleeping in his stroller.  I strolled him along to force him to sleep while mike had a small nap. I sat for a bit but forgot my book and was quite annoyed.

 Ordered birthday treats for room service which turned out to be comically pint sized:

To keep baby quite in restaurant, fed fruit loops:

It was really nice to get away to a new place, and the girls had a fabulous time at the cottage.  It'll be fun to look back on the trip and think of how small Henry was, and that we had some alone time with him too.  Oh--It wasn't buggy at all because of the crazy winds which was a good thing.  But, there was certainly a ton of goose poo on the ground--they could do something about that next time...

Preschool year end party time

Rose's preschool party at Lowville park

Rose and her best friend Claire with their teacher Mrs. Sim

End of preschool

Preschool came to an end this week.  I am so sad to say goodbye to that routine.  Rose loved it and she made some great friends.  She'll really miss seeing them.  I can't believe how much Rose grew up over the course of the year:

Every day since the weather got nicer, Rose runs around outside the preschool with her friends.  

I wish we just had a summer break and would be back at the school in September.  I can only hope that she has as great a time at Kindergarten.  She could technically go to kindergarten at her preschool school, but it would cost money, so it makes more sense to go where it's free!

Tomorrow is a year end party in Lowville at a park for all of the preschool families.

Rose baked a cake...

I read a very fascinating book called "Bringing up Bébe".  The author compares French parenting to American parenting.  I won't get into it, but apparently French children learn to bake at a very young age.  It is part of every weekend, and French children learn to wait for snack time and after dinner to enjoy small homemade tasty treats.  Anyway, the book had a recipe in it for a cake that a child can make fully on their own.   The cake calls for plain yogourt, and then with the empty yogourt containers you measure out the other ingredients...2 yogourt containers of sugar, 4 containers of flour, etc.  Rose was able to literally do the entire thing and even cracked and whisked the eggs.  I only intervened at the end to give one final stir for good measure, and of course put it in the oven.  Rose was so proud of herself, and halfway though said "This is so fun!".  She always asks to help in the kitchen, so this was right up her alley.  

                                        

The cake was extremely sweet, super dense, and next time we'd add fewer chocolate chips and put in the lowest amount of recommended sugar.  But it was definitely a success, and very fun.

Dance recital 2014

Such fancy girls!

Paige and her Kindergarten/dance buddies

The girls were so cute and did such a great job performing on stage.  Paige had a huge smile on her face the entire time.  And Rose remembered the steps without looking at her teacher. Sadly Paige says she doesn't want to take dance again next year.  As much as she likes the recital, she'd prefer to take different lessons--horseback riding, and brownies.  Rose is super pumped for dance next year though and has asked to take extra classes.